Women’s and infants’ health survey joins national effort

New Hampshire will be joining 40 other states in collecting standardized data on the health of women and babies.

Mothers of 2- to 3-month-old babies will be randomly selected from the state birth certificate files. These women will be contacted by mail and/or by telephone and asked to complete a confidential questionnaire.

“Participation is completely voluntary,” said Dr. Josť Montero, director of the Division of Public Health Services, “but we hope that all selected women will agree to participate, and share their unique and valuable experiences. Their input will help shape future health policies and programs statewide.”

PRAMS was created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to learn why some babies are born healthy and others are not. In New Hampshire, the project is fully funded by the CDC. The survey allows public health officials to monitor changes in maternal and child health indicators, such as smoking, prenatal care, breastfeeding, and more.

New Hampshire survey operations are housed in Concord at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Public Health Services (DPHS), Maternal and Child Health Section.

For more information on the Division of Public Health Services, Maternal and Child Health Section, please visit http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/bchs/mch/. For more information about the CDC Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), go to http://www.cdc.gov/prams/.

The NH PRAMS team can be reached at 1-800-852-3345 x2081 or by email at prams@dhhs.state.nh.us.